"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Victims of State Terrorism Day in Cuba

"Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong but of the weak." - Mohandas Gandhi

"Violence breeds violence." - Mohandas Gandhi

These photos are of victims of state terrorism carried out by the Cuban dictatorship in 1994, 1996, and 1997. Their killers remain at large and protected by the Castro regime. There are other victims.

Cuban dictatorship in its Tri-Continental meetings advocated worldwide campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism to achieve revolution. Terror bombing campaigns and bank robberies were carried out with training and support from the Cuban intelligence service. The regime published the "Mini Manual for Revolutionaries" in 1970 in the official Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) publication Tricontinental, written by Brazilian urban terrorist Carlos Marighella with a chapter on how to be an effective terrorist translating it and distributing it worldwide. In the chapter on terrorism it states:

"Terrorism is an action, usually involving the placement of an explosive or firebomb of great destructive power, which is capable of effecting irreparable loss against the enemy. Terrorism requires that the urban guerrilla should have adequate theoretical and practical knowledge of how to make explosives. The terrorist act, apart from the apparent ease with which it can be carried out, is no different from other guerrilla acts and actions whose success depends on planning and determination. It is an action which the urban guerrilla must execute with the greatest calmness and determination. [...] Terrorism is a weapon the revolutionary can never relinquish."

The victims of repression and terror require both justice and a thorough investigation of the facts in evidence to arrive at the truth. Obtaining both will set the groundwork for national reconciliation on a solid footing but will necessitate an independent judiciary in Cuba not the instrument of a totalitarian dictatorship that it is today.